Chadian forces eliminate 70 jihadists in Lake Chad region

A military offensive around Lake Chad, which borders Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad, has resulted in the death of 70 jihadists, according to the Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF), comprising troops from Benin, Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger, and Chad. The Chadian army conducted air, sea, and ground attacks in the area. The Chadian army had reported about 70 dead on Sunday. Following bombardments by the MJTF on the Nigerian shore of the lake, the terrorists fled to the Chadian side, where 70 of them were subsequently killed by Chadian troops, said MJTF spokesman Abubakar Abdullahi. However, the spokesman did not specify the terrorist group to which they belonged.

The attacks resulted in the destruction of five camps and ammunition depots, as well as eight vehicles rigged with explosives intended for suicide attacks. On the same day, there were several suicide bombings in the Nigerian town of Gwoza near the border with Cameroon, claiming the lives of 32 civilians. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu noted that these attacks were a clear indication of the pressure on the terrorists and the successes achieved in weakening their offensive capacity.

In recent weeks, the Nigerian military has escalated airstrikes on terrorist camps around Lake Chad, prompting deadly attacks on fishermen. Initially, the multinational force was established to combat cross-border crime, but the rise of jihadist groups in the region over the past 15 years has shifted its focus to counter-terrorism operations. Boko Haram first emerged in northeastern Nigeria in 2009, with other Islamist terrorist groups arising in the wider region subsequently. Violence perpetrated by these groups has resulted in at least 40,000 deaths, displacing around 2 million people in Nigeria.